I Have 10,000 SSS Rank Villains In My System Space-Chapter 387: Bad Feeling?

"Alright this is enough playing around... So... Down" Celestia did not raise her voice when she said it. She did not flare her aura or harden her expression. The word left her lips with the same quiet composure she had maintained from the beginning, as if she were ending a minor inconvenience rather than halting a catastrophe that had begun to bend the sky.

And at same time, the two fingers she had extended toward Maria tilted downward in one clean, decisive motion. There was no theatricality in it. No visible surge. No explosion of light. It was a small gesture almost dismissive as though she were lowering a curtain after losing interest in a performance.

And what happened next made Sylva’s breath stall in her throat and Selphira’s analytical mind blank for a heartbeat.

Because just as celestia did that..

Maria just froze.

Not staggered. Not restrained by chains of light. Not struck. She simply... stopped. Suspended mid-air as though time itself had been interrupted around her. The demonic flames that had been devouring the sky collapsed inward in a single, silent implosion. The black-red aura that had suffocated the capital moments ago vanished so completely it felt unreal, like a nightmare snapped out of existence. The oppressive killing intent that had been pressing against every soul in kilometers evaporated as if it had never been there.

The hellfire greatsword in her grasp flickered once then disintegrated into harmless sparks that scattered and died before touching the ground. The vast, grotesque wings of flesh and bone shuddered and folded, not folding naturally but dissolving into her back like smoke being pulled into a sealed vessel. The twisted horn that crowned one side of her forehead cracked into fragments of shadow and faded. Even the black inscriptions crawling all across her skin dimmed and then receded, sinking beneath her flesh as if they had only been illusions painted by fury.

Strength totally drained from her in visible waves.

Maria’s eyes, moments ago blazing with infernal hatred, turned blank. Not calm. Not relieved but totally empty now. Whatever engine had been fueling her eruption had been cut off at its source. Her body slackened mid-air, all tension released at once. For a fraction of a second she hovered in stillness, like a marionette whose strings had just been severed. Then gravity reclaimed her.

She fell.

Not gracefully. Not controlled. She dropped like a kite whose thread had been sliced, her body limp, hair trailing behind her as she plummeted. The thud when she struck the ground was heavy but unceremonious, a stark contrast to the apocalyptic force she had radiated only seconds earlier. Dust rose in a soft cloud around her.

She just lay there motionless.

Eyes open but vacant. Consciousness gone. Limbs slack. No aura. No flame. No demonic presence.

Celestia watched it unfold without flinching. Her expression did not shift. Her posture remained upright, hands lowering calmly to her sides as though she had simply closed a book. There was no triumph in her gaze, no cruelty, no visible strain. The storm had ended because she had decided it would. That was all that happened right now.

While besides her..

Sylva slowly turned her head toward Selphira. Selphira met her gaze. Neither spoke, because neither needed to. They both understood precisely what had just occurred.

Absolute authority of imperial bloodline.

Not technique. Not suppression by force. Not an overwhelming clash of power. It had been something older something woven into the structure of the Empire itself. The Imperial bloodline that dominion over subordinate bloodlines. A command that could not be resisted..

For a brief second, both women had forgotten Celestia could do that.

And now the realization settled silently in their chests.

But again this definitely didn’t make them happy.

Yes, the crisis had been resolved without further destruction. Yes, the capital had been spared from a Saint King peak clash. But the knowledge lingered uncomfortably: if Celestia could silence Maria so completely like that.. she could do the same to them too.

Meaning.. No matter how powerful they became in future. No matter how refined their cultivation of strength and magic. They would never be able to ever be free from this.. Reality and there actual destiny..

Though neither Sylva nor Selphira allowed that discomfort to surface on their faces. They were too disciplined for that. But internally, both felt the quiet weight of it. They sighed inwardly, accepting a truth they had always known but rarely witnessed so nakedly displayed still made them feel like fucking shit..

Though celestia herself did not seem pleased. If anything, there was a faint shadow in her eyes a dissatisfaction she did not voice. She disliked relying on this inherited authority herself. It was afterall not the strength she had forged. It was not a victory she had earned through skill or superiority. It was, in her own standards, a crude instrument. A lever pulled because it existed.

But this had not been a duel. It had been a potential massacre.

And rulers did not indulge pride when cities were at risk.

So without another word, Celestia began descending toward the ground where Maria lay. Her movements were unhurried, composed, as though she were approaching a fallen acquaintance rather than the epicenter of a near-catastrophe. Sylva and Selphira silently followed a pace behind her, their expressions now fully controlled, professional.

The transformation from apocalypse to stillness had occurred in less than a second. One moment the sky had been red with infernal fire and shockwaves had rattled the capital. The next, the wind calmed, the clouds cleared, and silence reclaimed the space. Only the evidence of destruction remained fractured stone, splintered rooftops, shattered windows, and debris scattered across the street like the aftermath of a war that had barely begun.

But suddenly

As the three of them descended, a voice tore through the relative quiet.

"Mariaaa!"

Sofia, who had witnessed the entire scene, suddenly screamed as Maria plummeted from the sky.. unnaturally fast, almost violently and ao weirdly

Celestia though didn’t even turn her head at the cry as her gaze still remained on Maria’s still body. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Take care of her," she suddenly ordered both of girls behind her.

It was not an clear order now.

And borh Sylva and Selphira understood this instantly that the command was directed at them.

And...

Celestia’s order had barely left her lips when Sylva and Selphira both reacted instantly. There was no hesitation, no need for clarification. The shout"Mariaaa!" had carried more than panic; it carried intent, momentum, and power. Both of them turned toward the source in the same instant and saw her.. As saw a blue-haired woman streaking across the ruined airspace like a blade of compressed tide, eyes locked not on them, not on Celestia, but solely on the unconscious figure crumpled below.

The speed alone was enough to register threat. And without exchanging a word, Sylva’s wind wings flared wide and Selphira’s paper wings snapped taut, and in the next blink both of them vanished from Celestia’s side.

The air rippled where they had been. A heartbeat later they reappeared directly in the trajectory of Sofia’s approach, intercepting her mid-flight with the precision of veteran combatants accustomed to high-rank clashes.

And the collision suddenly detonated like artillery.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

A concussive boom tore through the already fractured street, shockwaves slamming into broken facades and scattering fresh debris. Selphira took the brunt of it. Her guard was raised, paper constructs hardening instinctively around her forearms, but Sofia’s forward momentum was monstrous raw, focused, unyielding.

The impact hurled Selphira backward as though she had been struck by a siege engine. She shot across the air, tore through the side of a half-collapsed building, and vanished into its interior in an eruption of dust, splintered stone, and shredded timber.

While.. Sylva held.

Borrowing fully from her contracted Saint King–rank spirits, she rooted herself in the sky as if the air were solid ground. Her long green hair streamed violently behind her, wind spiraling in tight, controlled vortices around her limbs. She caught Sofia’s advance head-on, palms meeting the pressure of water-driven force with compressed currents that screamed under the strain. For a brief second the two forces locked.. water and wind grinding against each other in a howling sphere of turbulence. Sylva felt it immediately.

"She’s strong," the small wind spirit perched on Sylva’s shoulder murmured, voice thin but sharp.. And suddenly her tiny fingers pushing her own hair from her face.

And just as she did that small movement.

Suddenly, dark green wind burst outward from Sylva as its center.

The gust directly struck Sofia squarely and sent her hurtling backward through the air, flung nearly a hundred meters away in a violent arc.

Sofia had obiously not anticipated interference. That much was clear. Yet even as she was thrown back, she did not tumble helplessly as suddenly in mid-flight, water condensed around her in layered rings, cushioning and stabilizing her descent.

She halted her backward momentum with a sharp twist of her body, suspended in the sky, currents of translucent water orbiting her like disciplined sentinels. Her eyes not lefting Maria for even a second.

Concern was evident in her gaze.

She would deal with everything else later.. But right now, she needed to secure Maria’s safety.

Because she didn’t know why... but she was feeling an extremely bad premonition.

While sylva watched that detail closely.

"I can see that," Sylva replied calmly to her spirit. "And I can also sense a very pure water element from her... It’s so pure that it’s confusing me. It almost feels like she’s an elemental spirit like you. Actually... even purer in rank than yours. She gives me a very strange feeling.. but definitely not in a bad way."

Sylva narrowed her eyes at Sofia.

Obiously being born with a spirit body, Sylva was naturally extremely sensitive to elemental presence. And the sensation she was receiving from the girl in front of her was nothing but pure water element and that to of overwhelming purity.

It was actually purer than any spirit she had ever seen. And the spirits she had encountered were far from ordinary.

Her own highest their spirits she possessed were Saint King–rank elemental spirits.

One could imagine the level of purity that implied.

In the world of elemental spirits, purity and strength are directly correlated the purer the element, the stronger the spirit. Power naturally manifests as heightened elemental clarity.

Sylva had been close to Saint King–level purity before.

And not just that even King Rank spirits...The supreme-tier beings like the ones her mother possessed...

None of them gave her the same feeling she was sensing from this woman.

"I am confused as you are," the wind spirit admitted softly also. Both of them regarded Sofia with open curiosity now, wariness mingling with intellectual fascination. This was not merely a powerful human wielder. Something about her element felt fundamentally different.

At the same time suddenly

A blur of white paper sliced through the lingering dust cloud as selphira emerged from the broken building she had been driven into, launching herself back into the air with composed efficiency as fragments of stone slid from her shoulders. Her uniform was rumpled and coated in gray powder, and the square lenses of her glasses bore visible cracks spidering across their surface. Even as she hovered into position beside Sylva, the fractured glass shimmered faintly. Paper-thin filaments of mana threaded across the damage, knitting the lenses back together seamlessly. Her clothing smoothed itself as though pressed by invisible hands, restoring its crisp lines.

Obiously restored by her paper magic.

Also.. She did not comment on the blow she had taken. Her expression remained analytical, cool behind newly repaired lenses. She floated at Sylva’s side, guard fully raised now as sheets of enchanted parchment orbiting her like poised blades, ready to expand into constructs at a thought. Her gaze fixed on Sofia with measured caution.

"Are you alright?" Sylva asked, though her eyes never left blue-haired woman suspended opposite them. The question was angled slightly sideways, meant for Selphira without drawing attention away from the threat in front of them.

"I am," Selphira replied evenly, though she lifted the back of her hand to wipe a thin line of blood from the corner of her lips. The metallic taste lingered, sharp against her tongue. She did not comment further, but she was fully aware that if she had taken that blow without her paper wings layered defensively behind her spine, the damage would not have been so superficial. Her ribs still hummed faintly from the impact.

Her gaze suddenly returned to Sofia, sharpening behind lenses that had just repaired themselves. "Who is this woman though?" she asked quietly. "She’s far too strong for someone of this age bracket." There was no outrage in her tone only genuine surprise, analytical curiosity layered over disciplined caution.

"I don’t know," Sylva answered honestly as wind whispering restlessly around her shoulders. "But it’s ’Her’ order’s now. we gotta take her down.. whoever she is." There was no hesitation in that statement.

Authority in the capital flowed downward from one source, and in times like this, deviation could carry consequences far beyond the battlefield. Sylva shifted slightly, the currents around her tightening into structured spirals. "Stay behind me. Support from the side ohk.. And while you on that.. i’ll engage her directly."

Selphira nodded.

She understood the hierarchy of strength between both of them.

Sylva obiously was empowered by Saint King–rank spirits now.. She could could contest Sofia head-on.

Selphira though talented and strong in her own rights..

But against someone of that caliber, charging blindly would be foolish. They did not even know the outer limit of Sofia’s strength.

So caution would be better choice.

Anyways.. without further exchange, both women vanished from their positions, wind and paper scattering like afterimages. They reappeared in different vectors around Sofia, initiating their assault with precise timing Sylva taking the frontal approach while Selphira circling for positional leverage.

Meanwhile, on the fractured street below, Celestia descended at a measured pace. She landed a single step away from Maria’s fallen body, platinum aura dimmed to a restrained glow. The district, moments ago on the brink of catastrophe, now lay in a heavy, unnatural stillness. Broken masonry smoked faintly. Cracks webbed across the stone like veins. The sky still carried a faint red hue from the demonic eruption that had so violently flared and then been extinguished.

She looked down at her with a faint frown, confusion still clouding her thoughts.

She Obiously could not comprehend what had happened to Maria.. how she had gained such overwhelming power, what that strange form was, or why merely standing near her stirred a faint, offensive sensation in her chest. It was not fear. It was not hatred. It was something far more complicated.

Even now, with the demonic manifestation gone, the memory of it left a residue in Celestia’s senses. Disgust. That was the word. A visceral rejection that rose not from logic but from something older, instinctive. Imperial blood reacted to it. Her very being had recoiled. It had felt like looking at something fundamentally incompatible with existence an aberration.

What the fuck did maria did? Not to say the fact that she couldn’t comprehend how the fuck she gained such kind of strength.. not to say this fast?

Like literally two months ago, Maria had not even stood firmly at B-rank two months or so ago.. And she was sure of it.. And now for her to leap four, five major thresholds? crossing to saint fucking king rank? And that to Saint king peak rank?

That was not growth. That was an anomaly.

An impossibility.

It defied logic.

It defied law.

It defied everything Celestia understood about cultivation and power. And that was precisely what unsettled her.

And just as she was complicated on this suddenly her mother’s teachings surfaced unbidden.

If something cannot be understood, and if that something threatens future stability, remove it before it matures.

The lesson had not been cruel in tone. It had been pragmatic. Empires did not fall from visible enemies; they rotted from seeds of chaos left unchecked. Maria, in her current state, was exactly that: a variable without containment. A noble from one of the Ten Pillar Families, yes. But nobility did not exempt one from execution if necessity demanded it.

Celestia’s gaze sharpened slightly.. as Suddenly a dangerous thought arose in her head.

Should she kill her?

The thought did not carry malice. It carried calculation. Maria was unconscious, defenseless, utterly vulnerable. One precise strike. The matter would end here. No unpredictable resurgence. No future complications. No unexplained power blooming beyond control or whatver

Under ordinary circumstances, Celestia would have dismissed the thought because the Imperial blood held authority over all lesser bloodlines. Maria, like every person beneath the throne was subject to that invisible constraint. But that certainty had fractured recently now.. Not once but twice..

Razeal and selena both by whatver means had successfully broken free from it.

Two impossibilities had already occurred. The constraint was no longer absolute in her mind. If Maria’s weird power allowed similar resistance in the future, then today’s suppression might not guarantee tomorrow’s obedience.

Maria might be under control today.

Tomorrow, she might not be.

So this is risk.

And risk is unacceptable.

Her eyes hardened as she looked down at Maria’s defenseless body lying on the ground.

Erase the problem before it becomes a catastrophe.

That was the rational choice.

Not out of hatred, revenge or whatever.. But out of pure precaution.

And as for if she wants answer of what was wrong with maria..

There were always ways to extract them from a body.. So she really didn’t cared.

And as for the implications of killing the heiress of a Pillar family?

They were obvious to her, but not insurmountable. Political backlash? Certainly. Internal unrest? Possible. A storm of protest from the Grave household? Guaranteed. But none of it was beyond her capacity to bother her that much.

She was the imperial princess afterall. The empire did not bend even if a duke fell. It adjusted. It absorbed. It endured.

And not to say she’s just a pillar familys daughter

If questions arose, she would answer them with authority or silence them entirely.. If not there’s always her mother there for her..

And as for Maria herself...

Perhaps, once, in childhood they been little close but.. Whatever that faint threads of childhood familiarity once existed between them now had long since frayed into nothing.

That was all long gone. Now, there was no attachment or any remorse for what she was going to do whatsoever.

If Maria had become a variable too dangerous to calculate, then removing her was not cruelty. It was governance.

So Celestia raised her hand.. and at same time from the storage ring at her finger, a blade manifested in a shimmer of platinum light. The sword settled into her palm as though it had always belonged there

Sleek, flawless, humming faintly with restrained authority. She stepped forward once, closing the remaining distance to Maria’s unconscious body. The sword lifted, its tip aligning precisely over Maria’s heart. No flourish. No declaration. Just execution.

But at same time from farr away

"Oh no don’t!" Sofia’s voice tore through the air, raw and strained. She was still entangled in the suffocating currents of Sylva’s wind and Selphira’s layered constructs, elemental forces colliding around her in controlled bursts meant to restrain, not kill.. but enough to delay.

But the moment she saw the sword poised above Maria, horror overtook calculation. She abandoned defense entirely and surged forward, ignoring the slicing winds and binding currents that scraped across her skin. "Noooo you can’t!!!" she shouted, desperation cracking through her voice as she forced herself toward Celestia’s position.

But Sylva also reacted instantly. "You will not interfere," she said sharply, and with a violent sweep of her arm as she unleashed a concentrated gale that caught Sofia mid-flight and hurled her sideways across the ruined street.

Obviously, she had no intention of letting her pass.

The impact split stone and sent debris skidding, but Sofia barely felt it as she twisted in the air, stabilizing again through instinct and sheer will, fury blazing in her eyes.

But now looking at the scene she knew she couldn’t reach Celestia in time.. even if she tried fastest from there..

So she did only thing she could do right now.. She shouted instead, desperate for someone anyone to intervene.

As she she looked wildly around.. guards, arriving reinforcements, onlookers gathering at a distance anyone who might move, anyone who might step in. "Stop her!"

She screamed, but the soldiers stood rigid, faces pale yet unmoving. Obiously no one dared obstruct an imperial princess. Even if they wanted to, even if their hearts rebelled at the sight of a noble heir about to be slain, they would not cross that invisible line. And even if they did what could they do? None of them possessed the power to do anything anyways..

Sofia’s gaze then darted desperately to Selena.

For a heartbeat she hoped hoped that the saintess, who had radiated divine power moments ago, would move.. As for why she would help her? She doesn’t know.. Maybe she knows maria... or anyways whatver.. she wasn’t in right head of hers right now.. she just want’s maria to be saved.

But Selena remained on her knees where she had collapsed, hands limp at her sides, eyes still unfocused, lost somewhere deep within her own shattered reality. The news of Razeal’s marriage had broken something fundamental inside her. Even the chaos unfolding around her failed to pierce that void. She still hadn’t move.

She was just... there.

Blank.

And now..

There was no one left.

Sofia’s heart lurched violently as her eyes snapped back to Celestia. And in that exact instant, she saw the blade descend.

"Noooooooo! Don’tttt!" Sofia yelled at the top of her lungs, obviously horrified to see her friend about to get killed.

The sword fell in a clean, merciless arc toward Maria’s heart.

There was no time.

No way to reach her.

No way to stop it.

Then suddenly..

Flushhh~

The sound was sharp. Clean. Like fabric being ripped through the air... or something being severed in a single, flawless stroke.

Sound of hot blood coming out of body..

And at same time

Celestia, who had been in the middle of piercing Maria’s heart, paused mid-motion as she suddenly saw Maria’s unconscious body lying on the floor in front of her completely disappear from its place.. making a confused murmur escape her mouth.

"What?"

But before she could be more confused, that’s when she suddenly felt something else, and her eyes suddenly went wide.

As she suddenly looked toward her arm.. the one holding the sword.. she saw it.

Her arm was gone??

Where her arm should have been, there was nothing but empty air and a cleanly severed shoulder, the cut so precise it almost looked unreal, like an illusion cast by a cruel god. There had been no flash of steel, no ripple of mana, no disturbance in the air. No pain. No sensation. Nothing

When?..Whh.. Whatt? The word barely formed inside her mind, because she truly did not know. She hadn’t seen anything. She hadn’t felt anything. Her senses sharpened through endless battles had detected absolutely nothing. And that was what terrified her most.

The question did not form fully before

Thud.

A dull, heavy impact against shattered stone.

Ting... tingg

The metallic ring of her sword striking the ground, spinning once before sliding across debris.

Celestia’s platinum eyes trembled.. not with fear, but with something far rarer for her: incomprehension. She slowly lowered her gaze. There, on the fractured street below, lay her severed arm, fingers still loosely curled around the hilt of her blade. Blood stained the stone, bright against grey rubble.

"What...?" Her lips parted slightly, her pupils trembling violently. Confusion swallowed her whole. What had just happened? Who had done this? How? She had neither seen nor sensed anything. Not even the faintest whisper of intent.

That impossibility shook her far more than the injury itself.

And before her mind could even attempt to process the impossibility..

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

Suddenly.. two catastrophic explosions erupted in violent succession, the sound tearing through the battlefield like thunder splitting the sky. The ground shook beneath their feet. From two different directions, something had been struck no, sent flying with such unimaginable speed and force that entire buildings were obliterated upon impact. Stone shattered. Dust erupted. Debris rained down. It was as if two meteors had just collided with the city itself.

"What the hell..?!" Sofia, who had just landed after being attacked by Sylva and Selphira moments earlier, staggered slightly as the shockwaves rippled through the air. She looked up instinctively toward where her attackers had stood.. and her breath caught.

They were gone. Not retreated. Not hiding. Gone. They had been right in front of her a split second ago, poised to strike again. And now there was nothing but empty air and the distant aftermath of two explosions. It was as though some invisible force had snatched them away and hurled them across the battlefield like discarded dolls.

Her mind raced. What just happened? She barely had time to finish the thought before her gaze shifted forward and she stopped mid-step.

There, standing calmly in front of her as if he had always been there, was a tall man with long silver hair cascading down his back, strands shimmering faintly in the dust-filled light. He stood with an effortless composure, his presence emanating nothing at all.. holding Maria in both arms. His head was slightly lowered, eyes fixed on the unconscious girl he carried.

"Here... take her. And take care of her," he said quietly, his voice low yet weirdly dangerous vibe to it right now...

And without waiting for a reply, he stepped forward and placed Maria carefully into Sofia’s arms.

Sofia blinked once, twice and then recognition struck her like lightning. Her shoulders sagged instantly, tension draining from her body in one long exhale. Relief flooded her so powerfully her knees nearly weakened. "Why are you so late...?" she complained, her voice trembling not with anger but with lingering fear. "I almost thought I lost her just now..." She pulled Maria gently against her chest, cradling her protectively, her fingers brushing through Maria’s blood-stained blue hair as if confirming she was truly alive.

The silver-haired man, however, did not respond to her complaint. His gaze remained fixed on Maria’s condition.. the blood trickling from her mouth, the scattered injuries across her body, the torn and dirtied clothes, the unnatural stillness of her unconscious form. His eyes still emotionless as ever but with something colder tday as the wat he was observing every detail of marias body..

While.. Behind them

"Who...?" Celestia’s head snapped toward the direction of the explosions the moment they erupted. She had sensed the massive force behind them, and instinctively turned only to see the back of a tall man standing between her and the battlefield. His long silver hair moved gently in the dust-filled wind. And in his arms seen Maria just now..

Her eyes narrowed instantly.

She did not recognize him.

But she did not need to.

She had just seen Maria in his arms. She saw the position he stood in. And her mind drew its own conclusion in an instant. He took her from her. He attacked her. He was the reason her arm was severed.

Even though her arm had already regenerated completely, flesh and bone reforming with supernatural speed, the humiliation burned hotter than the injury itself. She had not sensed him. Not even once. How could that be? She prided herself on perception, on control, on awareness. Yet this man had moved beyond her comprehension.

Fury surged upward, drowning reason.

Her mana flared instinctively, energy coiling around her as she prepared to strike without hesitation. It did not matter who he was. He had interfered. He had taken Maria from her grasp. He had made her look weak.

But before she could launch forward..

"RAZEAL!!!!!"

The scream tore across the battlefield.

Selene, who had been kneeling blankly on the ground this entire time, lost in shock and despair, suddenly shot up to her feet. Her eyes were wide, shimmering with disbelief and overwhelming emotion. She had felt it the moment he appeared. That presence. That unmistakable aura.

She ran toward him without hesitation, her movements frantic, desperate. She didn’t need to see his face. She knew. She could never mistake him..

While suddenly

Hearing this name..

"Razeal...?" Celestia’s eyes widened dramatically. The fury on her face faltered, replaced with raw confusion. Her head slowly turned again toward the silver-haired man’s back, studying him more carefully now.

He is Razeal?

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